Say what now?

Zoe and I were in the car, driving to meet Nanay, when we saw a big white dog trotting majestically along the side of the road, carrying a huge stick in its mouth. It was clearly going somewhere - it had that "Don't bother me, I'm busy" look about him.

Zoe and I started talking about dogs, and she sighed and said, "I wish I could have a dog."

I agreed that that would be nice, and she continued, "If I had a dog, I would eat it."

I nearly drove off the road. "Did I hear you right?"

"I want to eat a dog," she insisted, "I want to know what they taste like!"

I'm just glad sweet, sensitive Gabby wasn't with us; she'd have been scarred for life at the very thought.

Just a few more

I love the transfixed look on Sophie's face here. They're watching the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything.

Gabby and Zoe

Curious George needs a home

Whoops, that's Rascal, George's full brother. Well, he needs a home too.

This is George. He's four years old, half-Arabian registered with the AHA. Sweetest pocket pony you'll ever meet!

It's picture time again!

This is called "Sophie's idea of what to do when told to smile".

Zoeisms

I can't remember Gabby mispronouncing words very often, although she had a few that were pretty cute. But Zoe is the queen of the mangled words, and it is often quite hysterical when she comes out with one. We don't spend a lot of time correcting her - we say it properly, and she eventually catches on. It's just so darned cute, I don't have the heart to fix it!

A few examples:

Our courthouse for a long time was the "port house", and then became the "pork house", which it still is now.

Ranch dressing is "branch dressing".

Pigs say "boink, boink".

The local EMS station is the "PMS station".

TV remotes are "am-remotes". That one's a head-scratcher.

And my favorite - there is a young girl at our church whose name is Camilla. Zoe caught sight of her the other day and turned to me excitedly, "Look, Mama, there's Vanilla!"

Sayings

The difference between boys and girls (or men and women, for that matter): girls like to use lots of words to make their point(s). Boys will use as few words as possible to get their meaning across. I now have proof that this starts at a very early age.

Sophie and Deet are 2 1/2 years old now. Sophie is incredibly quick, gets into everything, picks up 4 or 5 new words a day, and talks a mile a minute. Deet is equally smart but a little slower to develop, and while he can talk, he has one particular word that he uses for, well, everything. That word is "Dersh". Don't ask me where he came up with it, I couldn't tell you. But it is THE go-to word for my son.

When Sophie wants a drink, she says, "Tersty!" Or, "Gink!"

When Deet wants a drink, he points and says, "Dersh!"

When Sophie is hungry, she says, "Hungee!"

When Deet wants food, he points and says, "Dersh!"

Sophie has a special blanket. She calls it her "behbet".

Deet has a special blanket. He calls it "Dersh".

When Sophie wants up, she says "Down!" (We're working on that.)

When Deet wants up, he says (you guessed it), "DERSH!"

Bottom line: why use a multitude of words when you can get your meaning across with just one? It's kind of hard to argue with when you look at it like that, isn't it?

Three MONTHS?

Has it really been that long since I updated this? I could have sworn I posted something just a few weeks ago...

As you can probably tell, we still don't have internet at home. I keep meaning to get Juno, but I keep getting distracted. Email and the like just doesn't have the pull it used to. I'm certainly getting a lot more knitting done! ;o) But I am sorry I haven't updated this - I'm sure everyone wants pictures. That'll have to wait until I get the thumbdrive loaded, but I do have a bunch to share.

Erich is now an official Trooper I - no longer a Probationary Trooper. YAY! He still loves his job, and is incredibly good at it.

We found a wonderful church family and have been getting quite involved with the activities. I have been teaching a Wednesday night Bible study for 4th and 5th grade girls, and I play the flute on Sunday mornings during the singing. It's wonderful worshiping with such great folk!